Monday, December 4, 2017

November 20, 27 and December 1, 2017

November 20

This week:

Last monday we had a family night and we watched a video from President Hinckley called "Lessons I learned as a boy." Then we passed out a paper to everyone in the room and had everyone put their name on top. Then we explained that to show charity we don't need to give people money but sometimes it's as simple as some kind words. So everyone passed the paper to their left and the idea is that everyone in the room wrote something nice about everyone else. At the end everyone ended up with their paper again and it had a bunch of talent, attributes or other nice things that people had said about them. It was pretty awesome. Everyone felt really good and we invited everyone to lighten someone else's day by complimenting them, thanking them for something, or just being nice because it really can go a lond way. 

Roberto- This guy a couple weeks ago we showed up to his house because he's living with a less active member, and he didn't really want anything to do with us. But a couple of days ago we went and he started talking to us and out of the blue he told us that he stopped smoking and he hadn't smoked for four days and that he wanted to go to church. We talked a bit about the book of mormon and the promises that Prophet Monson left us a while back and he got excited to read. So then he showed up to church on Sunday and yesterdaywe passed by after and they had read the first 6 chapters of the book of mormon and remembered a ton. He was pumped to and wants to get a suit to wear to church. We'll be passing by again this week, but he's a really cool guy and he likes to make jokes. 

Reynaldo- My main man got baptized this week. It was pretty cool his family showed up and it was a nice little service. Then he got confirmed on Sunday. He was smiling the whole time. It was kind of crazy because the morning of the baptism we realized that there was no white pants in the entire city so we took an hour and fifteen minute bus ride to go get some haha. It was a pretty crazy day, but it was awesome to see the baptism. 

Jesús- He's a recent convert of about 6 months but when I got here he wasn't going to church. He's gone two weeks in a row now and he wore a white shirt and tie last sunday. I think he'll start passing the sacrament soon, he's fourteen. he's a really cool kid, we've been helping him a lot with his english and he showed us how to draw a bit to pay us back haha. He has some friends and his mom that he wants to bring to church so he's pumped to help us out. Also he wants to be a missionary so we're helping to keep him motivated. So our boy Jesus is doing great. 

This week I got sick. I had a pretty bad headache and I thought I had a fever. Plus my nose was running a ton. I felt like a sack of garbage so I called the mission nurse. I was coughing up a lung and she had the nerve to tell me that I had the "common cold." So it actually wasn't that big of a deal. Plus the mami gave me some chinese pills that looked like little sombreros and I felt great after sleeping on that. 

Also this week we gave talks in sacrament meeting and I think the big hit was when my companion mentioned honey badger. Chileans had never heard of them so they went crazy. And after that the teacher for the class didn't show up so they put us in. Pretty much it was the elders show in the chapel on sunday. But it was sweet because we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and everyone shared experiences of how they had been guided by the holy ghost at some point in their lives. 
I really liked this scripture Doctrine and Covenants 45:57
 "For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day."

Love you lots!!!!
Elder Cheney

November 27

It was a good week, it went by really fast so I'm having trouble remembering some of the things that happened, but here it goes.

We had change calls on Sunday and it looks like I will be staying with Elder Hucks here in Los Vilos another change. It's going to be pretty cool because we already know each other and we teach well together so it's going to be a good change. 

Thanksgiving was pretty great. Turned out that the papis were trying to give us dinner and not lunch so we made our own lunch. We didn't find any turkey but we fried up a bunch of chicken with some mashed potatoes and gravy. To finish things off we had some brownies and icecream. It was a pretty great meal. After in the night the papis gave us some papas du queso which is like big tater tots with cheese in them and some meat. We finished Thanksgiving nice and plump. 

They're trying to get us to participate in the Christmas choir here, I'm going to do my best to avoid the members haha. Just kidding it looks like we'll be apart of the Christmas Choir this year. 

We had a District Conference and everyone went up to Salamanca. It's like a two hour bus ride each way. It was really cool, the theme was Jesus Christ, the rock of our faith. They spoke a lot of how we should always make sure that God is in first place and we don't let anything else take more importance. It was cool to be with all the missionaries there. 

We taught Delia this week the Restoration! It was a good lesson, she participated more than in other occasions. She had an accident and has been in bed for like a month but she finally is going to get her boot taken off in a couple days and hopefully she starts going to church. We're working with her so she can go. 

We also found some new people to teach this week, but we have to do some follow up to see if they're going to progress. But the work continues!!!

Also the investigator of the sisters asked me to baptize him this saturday. It was a really cool experience. He's a big guy, like 6'1 and maybe 230 pounds. It's a good thing I've been doing my exercises because it was not easy to get him back out of the water. he's been investigating the church for like a year so it was cool, all the members were happy that he got baptized. 
 
A scripture that I really liked from my study this week in Mosiah 15:9 
Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.
 It describes perfectly what Christ has done for us. He makes it possible that we recieve mercy, He makes it possible that we can live again after this life, and He makes it possible that we can be forgiven of our sins. With Christmas coming up we should make an extra effort to remember Him admist all of the shopping, food, and good christmas music. To remember why we celebrate, why we get together as a family. Remember Christ. 

Love you guys a lot!!!!
Elder Cheney

December 4

We are definitely doing #iluminaelmundo or light the worldhere. We're inviting everyone to do it and we also have an open chapel program that we're going to be doing. In the zone we have 3 and we're not really going to have any help from the mission so it's pretty much just me and my companion planning all the activities. We have the first one this saturday. It should be pretty lit. We'll see how it goes, pretty much the goal is to get a ton of people in the chapel so they can learn a bit about the basic beliefs that we have. 

We taught Waldo yesterday, he's the dad of a recent convert. He was going through some pretty tough times there with the family so we started talking about prayer and then baptism. We talked about how baptism changes lives as we keep the commandments and keep our covenants (promises). He asked us "What are the commandments? What do I have to do to get baptized? That's what I need in my life." It was awesome, so we talked about a baptismal date. He has a lot of changes to make in his life but we're excited to work with him so he can become a new person. 

Something spiritual, in the leaders conference that we had this week some elders shared how they had made an effort to keep the sabbath day a little more holy. It's kind of hard as missionaries because we do the same thing everyday so there's not a whole lot to change to make it special. But I used some of their ideas, for example the night before I shined my shoes and in the morning I studied and learned how to play a hymn on the piano. It was awesome, during church I felt a lot more of the spirit and I learned a lot more from the classes. I felt more edified. Maybe that's something to look at, what we can do to keep the sabbath day more holy. It is something sacred for the Lord, just like the scriptures or the temple, we should treat it like that. 

Have a great week and check out Light the World in Mormon.org!!!!!!

Love you guys!!!!
 










 

Elder Cheney

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